Fall migration today (1 Viewer)

As far as passerines are concerned, fall migration in SW BC began today. Yesterday there were only a few songbirds around, today there were flocks everywhere. American Robins by the hundred were flying by, there were many flocks of mixed icterids (mostly Cow Birds and Brewer's Blackbird), and many hundreds of Dark-eyed Juncos. I went for a walk around the local marsh, and watched for an hour or two from my deck -- very un-energetic birding. (I had to work).

Here's the list:

Canada Goose
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mallard
Northern Pintail
Northern Flicker
Belted Kingfisher
Rock Pigeon
Band-tailed Pigeon
Killdeer
California Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull
Double-crested Cormorant
Turkey Vulture
Steller's Jay
Northwestern Crow
Common Raven
Varied Thrush
American Robin
European Starling
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Black-capped Chickadee
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
House Finch
Song Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Savannah Sparrow
Orange-crowned Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
MacGillivray's Warbler
Wilson's Warbler
Brewer's Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird

The yellow-rumped warblers were in flocks of 20 to thirty; the other warblers in small flocks of half a dozen.

A good day, though no real rarities.

Alan

Hi Alan,

Was there a particular change in the weather that prompted this movement, I know that on the east coast the passage of a cold front normally does the trick.

Dave

godwit said:

Hi Alan,

Was there a particular change in the weather that prompted this movement, I know that on the east coast the passage of a cold front normally does the trick.

Dave

Click to expand...

Yes indeed. There was an Arctic front, with heavy rain through Friday night, and sunny but cold air by day on Saturday. I live on the coast of a peninsula, the spine of which is rugged and mountainous. So we not only got the N-S migrants, but lots of altitudinal migrants as well.

Quite a relief after the dog days of August!

Alan

Hi Alan

Sounds like a nice little break from work. Here in Connecticut we had a good movement today (it's been really poor here so far this fall - a good day on Sept 1 but since then lots of southerly winds and it seems nothing was moving) however it was all but ruined by the wind keeping up from the north at 20mph all day - spotting birds in those conditions is 'challenging' shall we say - however I did manage to chalk up 8 warbler species early in my garden (all common enough stuff) and catch a migrating Bald Eagle (garden first for me) and Northern Harrier later in the day.

Regards and continued good birding Luke